Researchable Crystal Plating
Makes it possible to research crystal plating without needing to find and kill crystal elites. The basic blue plating is a tier 2 tech that requires blue crystal capacitors and tier 2 ship armor. The red crystal plating is a tier 3 rare tech that requires red crystal capacitors and the basic blue crystal plating.
Having a materials specialist leading your engineering research or being a militarist increases the chance of getting the red plating tech as a research option. Spark of genius and manaical also provide small weighting bonuses. Without any modifiers the red plating tech is unlikely to come up as a research option, just like any other rare tech.
You can still get both techs from killing crystal elites as before.
The weight modifiers are:
Not materials specialist: -70%
Materials specialist level 4 or higher: +25%
Militarist: +25%
Spark of Geius: +10%
Manaical: +5%
